Mr. Gerard Brady:

I will get to them all. On whether we would change much from the downbeat submission, in our view it is still very early in the global environment we have entered. People are more confident than they were in April, right after it looked like we could have an escalating trade war. If I had been told a year ago there would be a 15% tariff I would have thought it really substantial. Some of our sectors, and some companies particularly in the engineering sector, are facing 50% tariffs. This is where the product is mainly steel focused. Some sectors, particularly on the engineering side, are very troubled. What we are saying is there needs to be targeted supports for those worst impacted. It cannot be across the board. It is not like what we had in Covid. It is more like Brexit, where specific sectors needed support to be able to find new markets and rebuild. This is a time when they will be challenged in the US market. Again, there are probably specific firms in these sectors that have big exposure to the US. A targeted approach is what we are looking for rather than across the board.

On infrastructure, with regard to public sector versus private sector delivery there are several frustrations. One is multiannual funding, whereby State bodies run out of funding before the year end and then there is a wait until the next budget cycle to move on with the project. This does not happen in the private sector. The contracts have probably got more conservative in recent years, which leads to more transference of risk to the private sector than in other countries. We see this in projects. Another issue is decision-making timelines.